IFFI-RAY 2 LAST

Tessa said there could be many Indian films going through the same state.

"There could be other films like that. They may not be burnt but deteriorating. In India alone there could be lots of such films, deteriorating, but there is not the time or money to save them all."

Filmmaker and film archivist Shivendra Dungarpur, who presented the event, recalled meeting Rays favourite cameraman Subrata Mitra, who was sad about the future.

"I remember meeting his cameraman Subrata Mitra and in his last stages where he was teaching in a film school, he told me, What do you think people are going to think about my work? Such bad quality of DVDs and material is available, they will never think anything of me.

"They will think this is easy because everyone is watching everything on the net. This was coming from perhaps the worlds most renowned cameraman. I wish he was alive to see his wonderful work," he said.